We're in Annapolis.

Before we left yesterday, I went outside to look at the compressor for the heat pump to try and see how a bird might get into it.

Well, it can. Down at the bottom where the refrigerant lines enter and exit, there's enough room for a bird to get in there. We have several doves often feeding on our paver patio. I guess they're eating the little ants that inhabit the seams between pavers. I suspect one may have been feeding and simply followed its way into the compressor enclosure and couldn't make its way back out.

I once found a bird trapped in our fire pit. It has a screened top that contains flying embers, and the top had a hole rusted through it. A small warbler had managed to land inside the fire pit, but couldn't fly back out through the hole. It was still alive and well when I discovered it, and flew off when I removed the top. I inverted it after that. Not sure what I'm going to do about the compressor.

Unpleasant surprise at Jax airport yesterday. Several hundred parking places at the daily lot have been lost due to construction of a new terminal. We'd planned to park in the parking garage, or, failing that, daily surface. Closer to the terminal, no waiting for a shuttle.

Well, they re-directed all traffic back to economy. There was no heads-up that I noticed on the way in that the daily lots were full. There were the usual electronic signs indicating "Full" as you approached daily parking, after you'd passed the economy lots.

Fortunately, we'd left in plenty of time, the shuttle was waiting for us right as we parked, and filled to capacity immediately, so it didn't make a circuit of the lot. The driver then gave a long spiel about what had happened and how long it was likely to affect airport travel. Years.

Mitzi is our travel agent, and arranges all the car rentals. She'd booked a Budget "Fast Break," where she got a text that told us what zone in the parking area we should look, and pick any car in that zone.

To make a long story short, it was a disaster. No cars. We eventually got one, a Kia EV of some kind, looks brand new. Managed to suss out how to operate it, and then tried to exit the lot. Long, very slow, line at the exit booth, where we were supposed to show Mitzi's phone with a QR code displayed. Nope. License and key.

Car didn't come with a full battery, supposedly don't have to return it with one either. First car we looked at was an EV, and it had some woman's Florida driver's license in it. We were about to take it back to the check-in counter when a woman drove up who we thought was an employee. Nope, it was the owner of the license. Apparently decided against the EV, selected another car but left her license in the first one.

Weird.

Hotel has a charging station. Supposed to only park there while charging. It was open when we got there and after a lot of time searching (found it online) we found the charging port and plugged it in. Free charging, if not free parking. We let it charge for a couple of hours and then came back down to go to dinner. It'd only added 20 miles to the range! I guess that's Level 2?

When we came back from dinner, it was still open, so we plugged it in again and left it charging. I didn't go down to check on it last night, but I assume it's fully charged now. There's a level indicator next to the charging port, so presumably it was showing that it was being charged for several hours until late into the night. I wasn't going to go move it after midnight.

Anyway, probably going to go onto the Academy campus today and look around. There's supposed to be someplace where I can pick up a packet, I need to review all that information about where and when. We're checking out from this hotel and meeting up with some of my company-mates at an Airbnb for the rest of the weekend. I'm optimistic we'll have plenty of range on the EV and won't need to charge again before we return it.

Tonight is a get-together at a classmate's house. Tomorrow is alumni stuff that I have only a little interest in, but I'll probably attend. Friday night is a buffet dinner that we are attending because I hope to see some of my classmates from the Ocean Engineering group. Saturday is a tailgater event where I expect to see one of my roommates from Surface Warfare Officers School. A great guy who went on to become a career Navy SEAL. Haven't seen him in many, many years.

Sunday we head home.

I still haven't heard from Swytch about the cable issue, so add that to the disappointment. It doesn't matter because I figured it out, but it does say something about the level of support you might expect from the company.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:35 Thursday, 19 September 2024